Bombing of the Jedi Temple Creche
The Bombing of the Jedi Temple Creche was performed by Lofla Jil-Hyra, most certainly under the coercion of Sidious. No youngling was killed, although several were injured. The attack was believed to have been performed to distract from the Naboo Blockade and its proceedings in the Senate — which it did. Timeline of Event Depa Billaba was looking for Jil-Hyra who had missed her apointment with the Healers. She tried looking for her in the Force and then by scanning the Temple and found nothing. Billaba called Obi-Wan Kenobi, asking him to help her find Jil-Hyra, as he had shown the Council earlier that he could hide in the force—Billaba suspected Jil-Hyra could be using a similar technique. Kenobi and his friends Abella, Garen Muln, Aalto de’Ya and Reeft met Billaba at Jil-Hyra's quarters. Jil-Hyra's quarters were saturated in Darkness. That fact should have been obvious to all the Temple, but for barriers surrounding her rooms that kept the Darkness hidden in a way that appeared similar to Kenobi's shielding in the Force. The Force threads in the room made it clear that Jil-Hyra had been coerced. Kenobi and Abella led the search, using both scent and Force. The group made its way to the lowest public area of the Temple. They found Jil-Hyra in part by following her footsteps in the dust of the long-unused level. Jil-Hyra was muttering, twisting something in her hands. Billaba tried to talk to her, to know why she had come all the way down there. Jil-Hyra did not appear stable. Kenobi realized she was holding a detonator. Her last words before activating it were "He gave it to me." Kenobi barely had the time to warn Anakin Skywalker who was in the crèche at the time. Skywalker in turn called for the crèche to be evacuated just a moment before the charges went off, leading the first groups out with his friend Saini Ella. Qui-Gon Jinn, who was also in the crèche at the time, hit the emergency transponder, sending a signal through the Temple network and activating an alarm that would draw every warm body and able droid towards the crèche. Kenobi managed to keep most of the the great support posts the crèche had been built upon, and that were now damaged beyond repair, holding while the creche was evacuated. He also found and disarmed one more charge that had been on a timer. The group who had come down with him went back up to help with the evacuation. Jinn, Terrilanar, Mace Windu and Quinlan Vos were a few of the Jedi who helped find and bring all children to safety. The crèche was destroyed. Thankfully the structure was a self-contained system, limiting the damages to that area. If it hadn’t been, half of the Temple would have been destroyed. The only casualty was Jil-Hyra, who had been stopped presumably by Billaba. One hundred and seventy children were now without a place to sleep. Jinn suggested they double up, leading to children being spread in group to the empty quarters of the Temple and to share space in inhabited quarters. Consequences Within the Jedi Order The reorganization of the Initiates after the attack led to several Choosings. Most notably, Raallandirr became Padawan to Qui-Gon Jinn, Tuuvino of Iridonia became Padawan to Mace Windu, and Saini Ella became Padawan to Ch’tall’ah. Obi-Wan Kenobi suspected that the bombing was going to bring the Order firmly together for the first time in years. The crèche would take months to rebuild, and it could take as long or longer to repair the incidental damage the rest of the Temple had suffered. As a direct result of both the event and the following conversation with Queen Amidala, Master Yoda declared "A plaything of the Senate, the Jedi are not." Larger Political Consequences The event distracted from the blockade of Naboo and its proceedings in the Senate. All news feed covered the bombing, with no indication of the press conferences that had been drumming up public support for Naboo. Queen Amidala believed that the Jedi Temple was attacked in order to draw attention away from the blockade and invasion of Naboo, and that her only course of action was to return to Naboo and fight without waiting for the Senate. She asked the Jedi for help, and her request was granted. The attack also struck fear in the people of Coruscant: if someone could so easily harm their protectors, then they too could be harmed. Appears In Diverging Paths, Part IV Category:Events Category:Other